


A Choice Awaits

by jeleania



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-09
Updated: 2015-07-09
Packaged: 2018-04-08 10:17:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4300968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeleania/pseuds/jeleania
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His quest to capture the Avatar has been long and hard, but now, with the Airbender's existence verified and his goal in reach, Zuko has doubts.</p><p>Is it worth it?</p><p>What will he be returning to?</p><p>Does he even want to anymore?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Choice Awaits

 

* * *

 

 

Some days, Zuko wondered why he continued this crazy quest.

 

Oh, sure, nowadays, he knew the Avatar was real, was something tangible to capture and present the Fire Lord rather than myth and rumor and desperate dreams.

 

But was it really worth it?

 

What awaited him if he returned to the Fire Nation?

 

A father he could never please no matter how hard he tried.

 

A sister who was psychotic and wanted him dead.

 

A palace barren of love or peace or the warmth of his mother.

 

He wanted to say he missed being respected as a prince, but when had he been seen with anything but contempt or fear? His mother, his Uncle Iroh, his dead cousin Lu Ten - they had been the only ones to grant him any kindness. And he was starting to realize that the so called respect he had back then had been empty, not one he had earned with his actions and choices but handed out like party favors because of the luck of his birth.

 

There were fine amenities of foods and beds and spices that he couldn't get outside of Fire Nation. But, in truth, he couldn't recall the softness of the mattress in the palace - he'd become used to the humbler one in his room on the ship or learned how to appreciate a decent nest of hay. Foods and spices - some he could find, others he could do without.

 

Part of him prodded him about his duty to his people, as the eldest child of the Fire Lord. That one day he would take the throne and rule over the nation. Yet memories of dodging from assassins and generals sacrificing green soldiers and the complicated web of politics he still struggled to understand came to mind. Did he really want to deal with all that headache-inducing tangle, not to mention the conflicts with the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes?

 

And that was a whole different mess - the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes. Because he'd walked among them, spoken to them, watched them live their lives. And at the end of the day, they were just people, laughing and weeping and working and loving just like his own. There were different customs and beliefs, but that didn't mean the farmer tilling his land or the mother buying groceries with her children should be subjugated under the heel of the Fire Nation.

 

He'd seen the way some Fire Troops terrorized innocent civilians, and it made him ashamed to be of the same nation. No matter the country they hailed from, children should be treasured even if they could be annoying and a woman shouldn't fear a man would ignore her saying "no".

 

Maybe, just maybe, that ridiculous Air Nomad had a point about ending the war and bringing peace to the nations.

 

Zuko didn't think that rag-tag group could pull it off as they were now - not when he personally knew the strength of the Fire Army and Navy and Azula and the Fire Lord himself. And he suspected the bald fool didn't have a clue how to go about making that peace of his last or get someone like Ozai or Azula to surrender.

 

But maybe peace wouldn't be so bad.

 

That didn't mean he'd help the Avatar, just that he may come to share a goal or idea or something.

 

As much as he wanted to stay loyal to all he'd been taught as a child, traveling lands and seas in search of a myth had forced open his eyes to the world beyond the islands.

 

And shreds of doubt formed, growing like mold in his mind.

 

He had the feeling he'd have to make a choice soon, and he honestly didn't know what he'd do when that day came.

 

Zuko could only hope he would be able to live with whatever he decided.

 

* * *

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> hmm, may change the title, not sure if I like it...


End file.
